Large Internet Service Providers (ISPs) maintain their own networks with backbones stretching from coast to coast. Because no single major ISP controls the market, it is beneficial for the major ISPs to interconnect their networks so that users perceive that they are interacting with a single, transparent network. Typically, the interconnections are based on a combination of public multi-access facilities (e.g., MAE-EAST, MAE-WEST) and private point-to-point connections between routers controlled by distinct providers. However, the difference in cost borne by each of the ISPs may be so high that it is not in the interest of an ISP to interconnect at high speed with another ISP. For example, one ISP may bear greater costs where network traffic loads across distinct ISPs are asymmetric resulting in a greater bandwidth use on one network and/or where one ISP carries network traffic over a greater distance.
It is with these observations in mind, among others, that various aspects of the present disclosure were conceived and developed.